It was March 10, 2003. Dallas, Texas-based country music group Dixie Chicks were on stage performing in concert in London. It was the run up to the Iraq war, and lead singer Natalie Maines told the audience, “we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.” That President was George W. Bush.
Conservatives and Republicans were aghast, furious, and outraged. The group was forced to apologize, but despite several attempts to explain the remarks, they were boycotted and blacklisted, not only because they had criticized the President, but especially because they did so on foreign soil.
It took years for the group to recover.
Fast forward 16 years to Memorial Day weekend, 2019.
On foreign soil, the President of the United States is visiting Japan to become the first world leader to meet the nation’s new emperor. It is an occasion marked by all the trappings, pomp, and circumstance of a people who trace their heritage all the way back to 660 B.C.
President Trump posts a tweet not only siding with a murderous dictator – Kim Jong-un – who poses an existential and geographically dire threat to his hosts, but attacking a former U.S Vice President – Joe Biden – who also served as a U.S. Senator for 36 years.
Trump then doubles down, telling reporters at a news conference in Tokyo, “Well Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low IQ individual. He probably is, based on his record. I think I agree with him on that.”
Conservatives and Republicans are largely silent.
Democrats were not, and one, presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, spoke out to defend his fellow candidate, and attack the North Korean dictator.
Asked by CNN’s DJ Judd about Trump’s remarks, Buttigieg said: “My thoughts on that are that Kim Jong Un is a murderous dictator and the Vice President Biden served this country honorably. It’s just one more example, though, of the way that this President tries to draw attention to himself by saying things that shock the conscience, to distract us from his deep unpopularity and the deep unpopularity of the Republicans’ governing agenda.”
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